Complexity Digest 2008.25

19-June-2008

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Content

  1. Humour Is Shown To Be Fundamental To Our Success As A Species, Innovations-report
  2. Grids are to Clouds as Apples are to Oranges?, GridToday
  3. Perception Of Musical Consonance And Dissonance: An Outcome Of Neural Synchronization, Interface
    1. Science & Music: Raising The Roof, Nature
  4. Top Secret: CIA Explains Its Wikipedia-Like National Security Project, Computerworld
  5. Perceptual Accuracy And Conflicting Effects Of Certainty On Risk-Taking Behaviour, Nature
    1. Psychology: Not fair!, Nature
    2. What's Mine Is Mine: Brain Scans Reveal What's Behind The Aversion To Loss Of Possessions, ScienceDaily
  6. Transfer of Learning After Updating Training Mediated by the Striatum, Science
  7. High School Grades And SAT: Still Best Predictor Of College Success, Study Says, U.S. News & World Report
    1. Study: The New SAT Is Not Much Better, Associated Press
  8. Biochemistry: How Enzymes Work, Science
  9. Change Lifestyle, Change Genes - 3 Months On Ornish Diet Changes 500 Genes, Many With Anticancer Effects, WebMD Health News
    1. Nanotechnology, Biomolecules And Light Unite To 'Cook' Cancer Cells, EurekAlert
    2. Computer Predicts Anti-Cancer Molecules, EurekAlert
    3. Cancer-Killing Viruses Influence Tumor Blood-Vessel Growth, Innovations-report
  10. Bacteria Make Major Evolutionary Shift In The Lab, New Scientist
    1. MIT Researchers Unravel Bacteria Communication Pathways, MIT News
  11. Scientists Confirm That Parts Of Earliest Genetic Material May Have Come From The Stars, Innovations-report
    1. Genetic Building Blocks May Have Formed In Space, NewScientist.com
  12. Scientists Close to Reconstructing First Living Cell, Scientific American
    1. Planetary Science: Enceladus--Oasis or Ice Ball?, Science
  13. Researchers Create Molecule That Nudges Nerve Stem Cells To Mature, PhysOrg.com
  14. Ecosystems: Have Desert Researchers Discovered A Hidden Loop In The Carbon Cycle?, Science
    1. Why Do Mountains Support So Many Species Of Birds?, Ecography
  15. Predictive Models of Forest Dynamics, Science
    1. Forests and Climate Change: Forcings, Feedbacks, and the Climate Benefits of Forests, Science
    2. Computational Intelligence Approaches For Pattern Discovery In Biological Systems, Brief. Bioinform.
  16. Geophysics: Mysterious Mountains, Nature
  17. Acoustic Cloak Designed - Objects Coated In A New Material Would Be "Hidden" From Noise., Technology Review
  18. Perfecting A Solar Cell By Adding Imperfections, EurekAlert
  19. Complex Challenges: Global Terrorist Networks
    1. AP: Exams Prove Abuse, Torture In Iraq, Gitmo, Yahoo News
    2. And War Crimes for All...., The Huffington Post
  20. Links & Snippets
    1. Other Publications
    2. Webcast Announcements
    3. Conference Announcements
    4. Other Announcements

  1. Humour Is Shown To Be Fundamental To Our Success As A Species, Innovations-report Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpts: (...) answers the centuries old question of what is humour. (...) "Humour cannot be explained in terms of content or subject matter. A group of individuals can respond completely differently to the same content, and so to understand humour we have to examine the structures underlying it and analyse the process by which each individual responds to them. Pattern Recognition Theory is an evolutionary and cognitive explanation of how and why an individual finds something funny. Effectively it explains that humour occurs when the brain recognizes a pattern that surprises it, and that this recognition is rewarded with the experience of the humorous response." says (...).

  2. Grids are to Clouds as Apples are to Oranges?, GridToday Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpts: There has been a lot of talk about what differentiates grid computing and cloud computing, and how, especially in the enterprise space, the latter might be rapidly overtaking the former. But what about the scientific and research arena, from whence grid computing emerged? Can ¡§the cloud¡¨ possibly replace the ¡§the grid¡¨ as the high-performance vehicle of choice? According to Wolfgang Gentzsch (...) it isn't a matter of one paradigm usurping the other's throne, but rather a matter of one paradigm learning from the other.

  3. Perception Of Musical Consonance And Dissonance: An Outcome Of Neural Synchronization, Interface Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Abstract: While a number of theories have been advanced to account for why musical consonance is related to simple frequency ratios, as yet there is no completely satisfying explanation. Here, we explore the theory of synchronization properties of ensembles of coupled neural oscillators to demonstrate why simple frequency ratios may have achieved a special status and why they are important for auditory perception. The analysis shows that the mode-locked states ordering give precisely the standard ordering of consonance as often listed in Western music theory. Our results thus indicate the importance of neural synchrony in musical perception.

    1. Science & Music: Raising The Roof, Nature Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Excerpts: A concert hall is a hall of mirrors - acoustic mirrors. When sound hits a hard surface, it is reflected just as light is. Masonry, plaster, timber and glass all reflect sound with very little energy loss. Sound in rooms is predominantly a question of thousands of reflections. In a typical concert hall, only the audience and the seating absorb sound as a black surface absorbs light.

  4. Top Secret: CIA Explains Its Wikipedia-Like National Security Project, Computerworld Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpts: Intellipedia lets spies post and edit content wiki-style, and includes YouTube and Flickr versions (...)

    For example, Dennehy added that Intellipedia allows analysts to post ideas and documents that can be edited by others. Like Wikipedia, these edits can be tracked. "In the intelligence community, we're often asked 'What did you know and when did you know it?'" Dennehy quipped.

    Intellipedia is built with the same open-source software as Wikipedia, and anyone with access on the various networks can read the posts. Only those users verified as authentic users can edit the content.

  5. Perceptual Accuracy And Conflicting Effects Of Certainty On Risk-Taking Behaviour, Nature Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpts: Using complementary experiments in humans and honeybees (Apis mellifera), we show that by manipulating perceptual accuracy in experience-based tasks, both the certainty and the reversed certainty effects can be exhibited by humans and other animals: the certainty effect emerges when it is difficult to discriminate between the different rewards, whereas the reversed certainty effect emerges when discrimination is easy.

    1. Psychology: Not fair!, Nature Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Excerpts: If someone treats you badly and you retaliate, blame serotonin. Lower levels of this neurotransmitter make people more likely to retaliate when they perceive others to have breached the maxim 'treat others as you wish to be treated', find Molly Crockett at the University of Cambridge, UK, and her co-workers.

    2. What's Mine Is Mine: Brain Scans Reveal What's Behind The Aversion To Loss Of Possessions, ScienceDaily Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Excerpts: Did you ever wonder why it is so difficult to part with your stuff? A new study reveals fascinating insights into the specific neuropsychological mechanisms that are linked with the potential loss of possessions. The research, (...), has important implications for both neuroscience and economics and may even explain why you are reluctant to sell your iPod. People tend to prefer the items they own when compared to similar items that they do not own. This phenomenon, known as the "endowment effect," violates rational choice theory which states that ownership should not influence preferences. (...)

  6. Transfer of Learning After Updating Training Mediated by the Striatum, Science Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpts: Process-specific training can improve performance on untrained tasks, but the magnitude of gain is variable and often there is no transfer at all. We demonstrate transfer to a 3-back test of working memory after 5 weeks of training in updating. The transfer effect was based on a joint training-related activity increase for the criterion (letter memory) and transfer tasks in a striatal region that also was recruited pretraining. No transfer was observed to a task that did not engage updating and striatal regions, and age-related striatal changes imposed constraints on transfer.

  7. High School Grades And SAT: Still Best Predictor Of College Success, Study Says, U.S. News & World Report Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpts: Changes made to the SAT - mainly a writing section added in 2005 - "did not substantially change how well the test predicts first-year college performance." That was one of the key findings contained in a study released this week by the College Board, which owns the SAT. The study says high school grades continue to be a slightly more accurate predictor of college success than SAT scores. If there was reason to be disappointed by those findings, College Board officials did not give any hint while announcing them to reporters.

    1. Study: The New SAT Is Not Much Better, Associated Press Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Excerpts: The writing section added to the SAT has done very little to improve the exam's overall ability to predict how students will do in college, according to research released Tuesday by the test's owner.

      Critics of the SAT seized on the College Board's findings, which came three years after the revamped, nearly four-hour exam made its debut.

  8. Biochemistry: How Enzymes Work, Science Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpts: Studies of enzyme mechanisms were driven by a wish to understand the ability of enzymes to accelerate the rate of a chemical reaction by staggering amounts--up to 1020 times the rate of the uncatalyzed reaction in water (3)--while displaying a specificity so tight that some enzymes can discriminate between sulfate and phosphate. As we celebrate not only the 50th anniversary of Koshland's "induced fit" hypothesis but also ~50 years of high-resolution protein structure determination by x-ray crystallography, it is instructive to look back on the history of attempts to explain enzymatic catalysis and to summarize what we understand today about how these remarkable macromolecules function.

  9. Change Lifestyle, Change Genes - 3 Months On Ornish Diet Changes 500 Genes, Many With Anticancer Effects, WebMD Health News Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpts: WebMD Health News More than 500 genes changed the way they worked. Genes with beneficial effects, including some tumor-suppression genes, became more active. Genes with deleterious effects, including some cancer-promoting genes, were switched off.

    1. Nanotechnology, Biomolecules And Light Unite To 'Cook' Cancer Cells, EurekAlert Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Excerpts: In this study, the researchers used monoclonal antibodies that targeted specific sites on lymphoma cells to coat tiny structures called carbon nanotubes. Carbon nanotubes are very small cylinders of graphite carbon that heat up when exposed to near-infrared light. This type of light, invisible to the human eye, is used in TV remote controls to switch channels and is detected by night-vision goggles. Near-infrared light can penetrate human tissue up to about 1.5 inches.

    2. Computer Predicts Anti-Cancer Molecules, EurekAlert Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Excerpts: A new computer-based method of analyzing cellular activity has correctly predicted the anti-tumour activity of several molecules. (...) 'CoMet' - a tool that studies the integrated machinery of the cell and predicts those components that will have an effect on cancer. (...)

      "By comparing the gene expression levels of cancer cells relative to normal cells and converting that information into the enzymes that produce metabolites, CoMet predicts metabolites that have lower concentrations in cancer relative to normal cells".


    3. Cancer-Killing Viruses Influence Tumor Blood-Vessel Growth, Innovations-report Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Excerpts: Viruses genetically designed to kill cancer cells offer a promising strategy for treating incurable brain tumors such as glioblastoma, but the body's natural defenses often eliminate the viruses before they can eliminate the tumor. The findings of an animal study (...) help explain why this happens and could improve this therapy for brain cancer patients. The research, (...) shows that as the viruses destroy the tumor cells, they cause the cells to make proteins that stimulate the growth of new blood vessels to the tumor. These vessels transport immune cells that eradicate the viruses and actually stimulate regrowth of the tumor. (...)

  10. Bacteria Make Major Evolutionary Shift In The Lab, New Scientist Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpts:
    But sometime around the 31,500th generation, something dramatic happened in just one of the populations - the bacteria suddenly acquired the ability to metabolise citrate, a second nutrient in their culture medium that E. coli normally cannot use.

    Indeed, the inability to use citrate is one of the traits by which bacteriologists distinguish E. coli from other species. The citrate-using mutants increased in population size and diversity.

    "It's the most profound change we have seen during the experiment.(...)".

    1. MIT Researchers Unravel Bacteria Communication Pathways, MIT News Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Excerpts:
      Image / Protein Data Bank, Michael Laub and Jeffrey Skerker
      Diagram shows the structure of a histidine kinase (blue ribbons) and its target response regulator (green ribbons). The specificity of the interaction between the two proteins is primarily determined by the orange and red amino acid residues.
      MIT researchers have figured out how bacteria ensure that they respond correctly to hundreds of incoming signals from their environment.

      The researchers also successfully rewired the cellular communications pathways that control those responses, raising the possibility of engineering bacteria that can serve as biosensors to detect chemical pollutants.

  11. Scientists Confirm That Parts Of Earliest Genetic Material May Have Come From The Stars, Innovations-report Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpts: Scientists have confirmed for the first time that an important component of early genetic material which has been found in meteorite fragments is extraterrestrial in origin, in a paper (...). The finding suggests that parts of the raw materials to make the first molecules of DNA and RNA may have come from the stars. The scientists, (...) provides evidence that life's raw materials came from sources beyond the Earth. The materials they have found include the molecules uracil and xanthine, which are precursors to the molecules that make up DNA and RNA, and are known as nucleobases. (...)

    1. Genetic Building Blocks May Have Formed In Space, NewScientist.com Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Excerpts: Some fundamental building blocks of our genetic code might have come from outer space, according to a controversial new meteorite study.

      The study suggests that some organic compounds associated with genetic material might have formed in a meteorite called Murchison before it landed in Australia in 1969. The chemicals are two kinds of nucleobases, ring-like carbon molecules that are essential for the creation of nucleic acids like DNA and RNA.

  12. Scientists Close to Reconstructing First Living Cell, Scientific American Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpts:
    THE FIRST CELL?: Scientists at Harvard Medical School have designed what they think is a reasonable model for the first cell on Earth, some 3.5 to four billion years ago.
    ? JANET IWASA
    Researchers get genetic material to copy itself in a recreation of a simple protocell that could have existed eons ago

    Harvard Medical School researchers report in Nature that they have built a model of what they believe the very first living cell may have looked like, which contains a strip of genetic material surrounded by a fatty membrane. The membranes of modern cells consist of a double layer of fatty acids known as phospholipids.

    1. Planetary Science: Enceladus--Oasis or Ice Ball?, Science Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Excerpts: The case has not yet been made that Saturn's satellite Enceladus meets the environmental conditions needed to support life. (...)

      The Cassini mission found giant gaseous plumes erupting from a tectonically active and warm south polar region. One highly publicized interpretation is that liquid water is present, possibly within tens of meters of the surface (1), or possibly only at depths of tens of kilometers [for example, see (2)]. An antithetical interpretation is that Enceladus is frigid, stiff, thoroughly solid and composed of ice with interstitial gases to great depths (3, 4).

  13. Researchers Create Molecule That Nudges Nerve Stem Cells To Mature, PhysOrg.com Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpts: Inspired by a chance discovery during another experiment, researchers at UT Southwestern Medical Center have created a small molecule that stimulates nerve stem cells to begin maturing into nerve cells in culture.

    This finding might someday allow a person's own nerve stem cells to be grown outside the body, stimulated into maturity, and then re-implanted as working nerve cells to treat various diseases, the researchers said.

    "This provides a critical starting point for neuro-regenerative medicine and brain cancer chemotherapy," (...).

  14. Ecosystems: Have Desert Researchers Discovered A Hidden Loop In The Carbon Cycle?, Science Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpts: Findings in two deserts on opposite sides of the world suggest that deserts are a larger sink for carbon dioxide than scientists had assumed.

    (...) he realized that deserts are "like a dry ocean." The pH of oceans is falling gradually as they absorb CO2, forming carbonic acid. "I thought, 'Why wouldn't this also happen in the soil?' " Whereas the ocean has a single surface for gas exchange, Li says, soil is a porous medium with a huge reactive surface area.

    1. Why Do Mountains Support So Many Species Of Birds?, Ecography Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Excerpt: Although topographic complexity is often associated with high bird diversity at broad geographic scales, little is known about the relative contributions of geomorphologic heterogeneity and altitudinal climatic gradients found in mountains. We analysed the birds in the western mountains of the New World to examine the two-fold effect of topography on species richness patterns, (...).We conclude that bird diversity gradients in mountains primarily reflect local climatic gradients. Widespread (lowland) species and narrow-ranged (montane) species respond similarly to changes in the environment, differing only in that the richness of lowland species correlates better with broad-scale climatic effects (...).

  15. Predictive Models of Forest Dynamics, Science Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpts: Dynamic global vegetation models (DGVMs) have shown that forest dynamics could dramatically alter the response of the global climate system to increased atmospheric carbon dioxide over the next century. But there is little agreement between different DGVMs, making forest dynamics one of the greatest sources of uncertainty in predicting future climate. DGVM predictions could be strengthened by integrating the ecological realities of biodiversity and height-structured competition for light, facilitated by recent advances in the mathematics of forest modeling, ecological understanding of diverse forest communities, and the availability of forest inventory data.

    1. Forests and Climate Change: Forcings, Feedbacks, and the Climate Benefits of Forests, Science Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Excerpts: The world's forests influence climate through physical, chemical, and biological processes that affect planetary energetics, the hydrologic cycle, and atmospheric composition. These complex and nonlinear forest-atmosphere interactions can dampen or amplify anthropogenic climate change. Tropical, temperate, and boreal reforestation and afforestation attenuate global warming through carbon sequestration. Biogeophysical feedbacks can enhance or diminish this negative climate forcing. Tropical forests mitigate warming through evaporative cooling, but the low albedo of boreal forests is a positive climate forcing. The evaporative effect of temperate forests is unclear.

    2. Computational Intelligence Approaches For Pattern Discovery In Biological Systems, Brief. Bioinform. Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Excerpt: Biology, chemistry and medicine are faced by tremendous challenges caused by an overwhelming amount of data and the need for rapid interpretation. Computational intelligence (CI) approaches such as artificial neural networks, fuzzy systems and evolutionary computation are being used with increasing frequency to contend with this problem, in light of noise, non-linearity and temporal dynamics in the data. Such methods can be used to develop robust models of processes either on their own or in combination with standard statistical approaches. (...)

  16. Geophysics: Mysterious Mountains, Nature Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpts:
    D. WALL/ALAMY
    Why do mountains arise in the interior of continents, far from the edges of tectonic plates where deformation - and thus mountain building - is expected? (...) They concluded that the plate interior can be affected by forces at the plate edges thousands of kilometres away - a finding that could help explain deformation in the middle of other tectonic plates.

  17. Acoustic Cloak Designed - Objects Coated In A New Material Would Be "Hidden" From Noise., Technology Review Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpts:
    Sound shield: An acoustic cloak comprising alternating layers of sound-scattering materials should make objects invisible to sonar--and insulated from sound. In this computer-generated image, a cylinder (green circle) is coated with 200 layers of such a material, which was found to be the optimal design. Sound waves moving from left to right (their peaks and troughs are represented by red and blue lines) flow past the object and reform on the other side with no distortion. Credit: New Journal of Physics
    Acoustic cloaking materials, which direct sound waves around an object so that they re-form on the other side with no distortion, do not exist in nature. But engineers (...), have created a plan for making them, using alternating layers of two different materials. These materials would comprise arrays of sonic crystals--patterns of small rods made of aluminum or other materials that allow some sound waves to pass while blocking the passage of others.

  18. Perfecting A Solar Cell By Adding Imperfections, EurekAlert Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpts: Nanotechnology is paving the way toward improved solar cells. New research shows that a film of carbon nanotubes may be able to replace two of the layers normally used in a solar cell, with improved performance at a lower cost. Researchers have found a surprising way to give the nanotubes the properties they need: add defects. (...)

    Jessika Trancik of the Santa Fe Institute, Scott Calabrese Barton of Michigan State University and James Hone of Columbia University decided to use carbon nanotubes to create a single layer that could perform the functions of both the oxide and platinum layers.

  19. Complex Challenges: Global Terrorist Networks Next Article Bookmark and Share

    1. AP: Exams Prove Abuse, Torture In Iraq, Gitmo, Yahoo News Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Excerpts: For the most extensive medical study of former U.S. detainees published so far, Physicians for Human Rights had doctors and mental health professionals examine 11 former prisoners. The group alleges finding evidence of U.S. torture and war crimes and accuses U.S. military health professionals of allowing the abuse of detainees, denying them medical care and providing confidential medical information to interrogators that they then exploited. (...)

      The patients underwent intensive, two-day long exams following standards and methods used worldwide to document torture.


    2. And War Crimes for All...., The Huffington Post Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Excerpts: Moreover, we now know that Bush administration proxies essentially held mostly innocent people, whom they tortured and who subsequently after their release became radicalized.

      In other words, they built Manchurian candidates- terrorists- either knowingly or as a symptom of their illegal torture program. However you choose to view this staggering revelation it does not change the reality we are now faced with. Namely, the Bush administration has created the very monsters they claimed to be fighting against. They created an enemy, a global enemy, that did not exist in such numbers and across so many geographical boundaries.

  20. Links & Snippets Next Article Bookmark and Share

    1. Other Publications Next Article Bookmark and Share

      1. Direct observation of Anderson localization of matter waves in a controlled disorder, Juliette Billy, Vincent Josse, Zhanchun Zuo, Alain Bernard, Ben Hambrecht, Pierre Lugan, David Cl?ment, Laurent Sanchez-Palencia, Philippe Bouyer, Alain Aspect, 08/06/12, Nature 453, 891-894. We directly image the atomic density profiles as a function of time, and find that weak disorder can stop the expansion and lead to the formation of a stationary, exponentially localized wavefunction¡Xa direct signature of Anderson localization., DOI: 10.1038/nature07000
      2. Identification of Functional Information Subgraphs in Complex Networks, Luis M. A. Bettencourt, Vadas Gintautas, Michael I. Ham, 08/06/13, Phys. Rev. Lett. 100, 238701.We apply this methodology to electrophysiological recordings of cortical neuronal networks grown in vitro. Each cell's firing is generally explained by the activity of a few neurons.
      3. Biochemistry: How Do Proteins Interact?, David D. Boehr, Peter E. Wright, 08/06/13, Science : 1429-1430. New results provide support for the hypothesis that interactions between proteins involve selection from an ensemble of different conformations.
      4. Legal Drugs Kill Far More Than Illegal, Florida Says, Damien Cave, 08/06/14, NYTimes, The rate of deaths caused by prescription drugs was found to be three times the rate of deaths caused by all illicit drugs combined.
      5. Translational Research: Crossing The Valley Of Death, Declan Butler, 2008, Nature 453, 840-842 A chasm has opened up between biomedical researchers and the patients who need their discoveries., DOI: 10.1038/453840a
      6. Kin Recognition In Zebrafish: A 24-Hour Window For Olfactory Imprinting, G. Gerlach, A. H.-Davis, C. Avolio, C. Schunter, 2008/06/10, Proceedings B: Biological Sciences, DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2008.0647
      7. US Remains Science And Tech Superpower: Government-Backed Study Says Nation Not Losing Its Lead, R. Jaques, 2008/06/12, vnunet.com
      8. Reverse Engineering The Brain To Model Mind-body Interactions, 2008/06/12, ScienceDaily & University of British Columbia
      9. Toothpaste Too Pricey For The Poor, 2008/06/13, Innovations-report
      10. How The Brain Separates Audio Signals From Noise, 2008/06/14, ScienceDaily & Public Library of Science
      11. Pigeons Show Superior Self-recognition Abilities To Three Year Old Humans, 2008/06/14, ScienceDaily & Keio University
      12. Radical Reform Is Needed To Stop The 'Inhumane' Practice Of Transplant Tourism, Experts Urge, 2008/06/16, ScienceDaily & BMJ-British Medical Journal
      13. The Impact Of Natural Odors On Affective States In Humans, S. T. Weber, E. Heuberger - eva.heubergeraunivie.ac.at, Jun. 2008, online 2008/03/18, Chemical Senses, DOI: 10.1093/chemse/bjn011
      14. A Direct Comparison Of The Taste Of Electrical And Chemical Stimuli, D. A. Stevens, D. Baker, E. Cutroni, A. Frey, D. Pugh, H. T. Lawless - htl1acornell.edu, Jun. 2008, online 2008/03/18, Chemical Senses, DOI: 10.1093/chemse/bjn002

    2. Webcast Announcements Next Article Bookmark and Share

      1. 7th Intl Conf on Complex Systems (ICCS), Boston, MA, 07/10/28-11/02
      2. Reseau Nationale des Systemes Complexes , (in French), 2007
      3. World Economic Forum , Davos, Switzerland, 08/01/22-27
      4. TED Talks, TED Conferences LLC , since 2006
      5. Talking Robots: The PodCast on Robotics and AI, Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne, Switzerland, 06/11/03
      6. Potentials of Complexity Science for Business, Governments, and the Media 2006, Budapest, Hungary, 06/08/03-05
      7. 6th Intl Conf on Complex Systems (ICCS), Boston, MA, 06/06/25-30
      8. Artificial Life X, 10th Intl Conf on the Simulation and Synthesis of Living Systems, Bloomington, IN, USA. 2006/06/03-07
      9. 6th Understanding Complex Systems Symposium, Urbana-Champaign, Il, 06/05/15-18
      10. Ralph Abraham on Complexity Digest, , Calcutta, India, 05/12/27
      11. An Afternoon with Michael Crichton, Washington, 05/11/06
      12. Illuminating the Shadow of the Future, Ann Arbor, Mi 05/09/23-25
      13. Open Network of Centres of Excellence in Complex Systems - Brainstorming Meeting, Paris, France 05/09/19-23
      14. Complexity, Science & Society Conference 2005, U. Liverpool, UK 2005/09/11-14
      15. ECAL 2005 - VIIIth European Conference on Artificial Life, Canterbury, Kent, UK 2005/09/5-9
      16. T. Irene Sanders, Executive Director and Founder, The Washington Center for Complexity & Public Policy, 05/08/27, QuickTime video (10:38 min), Podcast
      17. North American Society for the Psychology of Sport and Physical Activity 2005 Conference, Virtual Conference Network, St. Pete's Beach, Florida, 05/06/09-11
      18. Understanding Complex Systems - Computational Complexity and Bioinformatics, Virtual Conference Network, Urbana-Champaign, Il, UIUC, 05/05/16-19
      19. Nonlinearity, Fluctuations, and Complexity, with a celebration of the 65th birthday of Gregoire Nicolis. , Complexity Session, Universite' Libre de Bruxelles, Brussels, Belgium, 05/03/16
      20. 1st European Conference on Complex Systems, Torino, Italy, 04/12/5-7
      21. From Autopoiesis to Neurophenomenology: A Tribute to Francisco Varela (1946-2001), Paris, France, 2004/06/18-20
      22. Evolutionary Epistemology, Language, and Culture, Brussels, Belgium, 04/05/26-28
      23. International Conference on Complex Systems 2004, Boston, 04/05/16-21
      24. Nonlinear Dynamics And Chaos: Lab Demonstrations, Strogatz, Steven H., Internet-First University Press, 1994
      25. CERN Webcast Service, Streamed videos of Archived Lectures and Live Events
      26. Dean LeBaron's Archive of Daily Video Commentary, Ongoing Since February 1998
      27. Edge Videos

    3. Conference Announcements Next Article Bookmark and Share

      1. Intl Summer School on "Modelling and Optimization in Micro- and Nano- Electronics" - MOMINE 2008, Ragusa, Sicily, Italy, 08/06/14-28
      2. NECSI Summer School, Cambridge, MA, 08/06/16-07/04,
      3. 9th Intl Mathematica Symposium, Maastricht, The Netherlands, 08/06/20-24
      4. The 14th Intl Conf on Auditory Display (ICAD), Paris, France, 08/06/24-27
      5. 8th Intl Conf of Sociocybernetics - Complex Social Systems, Interdisciplinarity And World Futures, Ciudad de Mexico, Mexico, 08/06/24-28
      6. "Is complexity the new framework for management and public policy in the 21st century?" Complexity Society Workshop, Manchester, UK, 08/06/26
      7. The 3rd Intl Symp on Knowledge Communication and Peer Reviewing: KCPR 2008, Orlando, Florida, USA, 08/06/29-07/02
      8. The 3rd Intl Symp on Knowledge Communication and Conferences: KCC 2008, Orlando, Florida, USA, 08/06/29-07/02
      9. 7th Intl Summer School and Conf "Let's Face Chaos through Nonlinear Dynamics", Maribor, Slovenia, 08/06/29-07/13
      10. The 12th World Multi-Conf on Systemics, Cybernetics and Informatics: WMSCI 2008, Orlando, Florida, USA, 08/06/29-07/02
      11. From Animals To Animats 10 - The 10th Intl Conf on the Simulation Of Adaptive Behavior (SAB'08), Osaka, Japan, 08/07/07-12
      12. Complex Systems and Social Simulations, CEU Summer University, Budapest, Hungary, 08/07/07-18
      13. 2008 Gordon Research Conf on Oscillations & Dynamic Instabilities in Chemical Systems, Waterville, ME, 08/07/13-18
      14. Nonlinear Fracture Mechanics Models, Udine, Italy, 08/07/14-18
      15. 1st Intl Workshop on Nonlinear Dynamics and Synchronization (INDS'08), Klagenfurt, Austria, 08/07/18-19
      16. Scratch@MIT,Cambridge, MA, 08/07/24-26
      17. 8th Intl Conf on Epigenetic Robotics: Modeling Cognitive Development in Robotic Systems, Brighton, UK, 08/07/31-08/02
      18. On the Edge: Healthcare in the Age of Complexity, Kansas City, MO, 08/08/03-05
      19. Society for Chaos Theory in Psychology & Life Sciences 18th Annl Intl Conf, Richmond, Virginia, USA, 08/08/08-10
      20. Stochastic Resonance 2008, Perugia, Italy, 08/08/17-21
      21. 4th Intl Conf on Natural Computation (ICNC'08) - 5th Intl Conf on Fuzzy Systems and Knowledge Discovery (FSKD'08), Jinan, China, 08/08/25-27
      22. Intl Conf DEscribing COmplex Systems (DECOS), Zadar, Croatia, 08/09/03-07
      23. BICS Conference - Emergence in Complex Systems, Bath, UK, 08/09/09-11
      24. 5th European Conference on Complex Systems, Jerusalem, Israel, 08/09/14-19
      25. EPOS 2008, III Edition of Epistemological Perspectives on Simulation, Lisbon, Portugal, 08/10/02-03
      26. The 1st Intl Conf on the Evolution and Development of the Universe., Paris, France, 08/10/08-09
      27. International Congress on Complex Thought, Hermosillo , Sonora , Mexico, 08/10/21-24
      28. 2nd Intl Congress of Complex Systems in Sport (2nd ICCSS) and 10th European Workshop of Ecological Psychology. (10th EWEP), Funchal, in Madeira Island, Portugal, 08/11/05-08
      29. 2008 IEEE/WIC/ACM International Conference on Web Intelligence (WI-08), Sydney, Australia, 08/12/09-12
      30. COMPLEX'2009, First Intl Conf on Complex Systems: Theory and Applications, Shanghai, China, 09/02/23-25

    4. Other Announcements Bookmark and Share

      1. A short notice from Dean LeBaron

        Dear ComDig Readers,

        Our editor, Dr. Gottfried Mayer, is affectionately esteemed by many of you -- as readers, you know he devotes himself unselfishly to widening our knowledge of complexity science. He was recently diagnosed with advanced colon cancer and given a timetable of a very few years. Knowing Gottfried, you can imagine that, in addition to the customary processes of chemotherapy, he would explore other frontier therapies, especially those arising out of interdisciplinary applications of complexity. These are expensive ... if he can find them.

        Many of you have sent your good wishes and indicated your desire to assist. With Gottfried's permission, I am posting this note with information, below, about how to send contributions to him. Please indicate the source since Gottfried will want to express his warm gratitude.

        I know that Gottfried, the good scientist that he is, will explain from time to time what he is doing and what the results are ... and we will follow his progress with great interest and hope.

        Dean LeBaron
        Publisher, Complexity Digest

        Bank Information:

        If your contribution is made by check:
        Please mail the check, payable to "Gottfried Mayer", to:
        Manufacturers & Traders Trust
        2080 Western Avenue
        20 Mall
        Guilderland, NY 12084 USA
        (on the back of the check, please write: "For Deposit Only: Account # 983 338 3814")

        If your contribution is made by wire:
        Manufacturers & Traders Trust
        2080 Western Avenue
        20 Mall

        Guilderland, NY 12084 USA
        SWIFT Code# MANTUS33
        UID: 209 791
        ABA routing # 022 00 00 46 [for US wire transfers]
        Account # 983 338 3814
        Ref. Gottfried Mayer


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